Bahrain using Israeli spyware to target critics

The Toronto-based research organization Citizen Lab found that Manama is using an Israeli-made mobile phone spyware program, Pegasus, to target Bahrain’s civil society and Shiite majority.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Toronto-based research organization Citizen Lab found that Manama is using an Israeli-made mobile phone spyware program, Pegasus, to target Bahrain’s civil society and Shiite majority.

In a newly published report the organization explains how Manama’s security services used a method of baiting against regime critics by employing “politically themed domain names including shia-voice.com”.

The report adds that Bahrain is “noteworthy for compromising journalists, lawyers, opposition politicians, and pro-democracy activists” with another spyware program between 2010 and 2012.

It also identifies a significant expansion of Pegasus usage in other member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“In total, we identify at least six operators with significant GCC operations, including at least two that appear to predominantly focus on the UAE, one that appears to predominantly focus on Bahrain, and one with a Saudi focus,” the report notes.